• A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that more than one-third of American singles 18 to 29 say they aren't looking for a romantic partner.
• In 1970, only 15 percent of Americans 25 to 29 were unmarried. Now nearly half are, according to 2005 census numbers.
  • Census statistics suggest that young adults living in states where there is a high cost of living and a competitive career market often wait longer to marry
  • Statistics also show that today's young adults are making less, when adjusted for inflation, than people their age did 30 years ago.
  • Washington, D.C., has the highest median age for marriage in the nation: 30
  • Florida has the oldest age of marriage for the South (27 for men, 25 for women)
• The National Marriage Project at Rutgers University reports in their "State of Our Unions" survey that, while divorce rates hover near 50 percent for all Americans, couples cut that in half by waiting to marry after 25.
  • Americans have become less likely to marry and this is reflected in a decline of 50% from 1970 to 2004
• The National Marriage Project also reports that the percentage of all persons age 15 and older who were divorced in 2004 was 8.2% of men and 10.9% of women.
  • Of the men divorced, 9.1% were black and 8.3% were white
  • Of the women divorced, 12.9% were black and 10.9% were white 
• 30.9% of boys and 38.7% of girls (High school Seniors in the United States) agreed or mostly agreed that most people will have a happier life if they choose a legal marriage rather than staying single or just living with someone
• 65.7% of males and 67.3% of females between the ages of 35 and 44 are married in the United States
• A 2004 study by the RAND Corp. showed that women who delayed marriage increased their wages by an extra 4 percent a year for every year they remained single.
• Between 1990 and 2004, the number of non-same-sex cohabitating couples almost doubled in the United States when compared to 1970 estimates, the practice is up 1,200 percent
• About a quarter of all unmarried women 25 to 39 are living with a partner and another quarter have lived with a partner some time in the past

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Read more from RAND Corp Survey   

Read more from The State of Our Unions Survey 

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